Afghan Archives - BookDragon

6,000 Miles to Freedom: Two Boys and Their Flight from the Taliban by Stéphane Marchetti, illustrated by Cyrille Pomès, translated by Hannah Chute [in Shelf Awareness]

24 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, European, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW The title 6,000 Miles to Freedom: Two Boys and Their Flight from the Taliban is an apt distillation of the stunning graphic odyssey it entails. Author/director Stéphane Marchetti adapts the striking narrative from his 2017 documentary with Thomas Dandois, Les enfants de la jungle, illuminating the...

Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi [in Booklist]

05 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Veteran narrator Mozhan Marnò has one of those gratifyingly recognizable, sigh-inducing audiobook voices that immediately immerses readers. Here, for 12 hours, she commands Afghan American pediatrician-turned-novelist Nadia Hashimi’s (A House without Windows, 2018) latest, ciphering the multi-pronged epic over decades and across continents, cultures, and...

The Opium Prince by Jasmine Aimaq [in Shelf Awareness]

22 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Canadian, Fiction, Repost

In her extraordinary fiction debut, The Opium Prince, Afghan Swedish academic and communications expert Jasmine Aimaq, who lives in Canada, combines elements of literary thriller, sociopolitical exposé, and historical witnessing. The Afghan people lived in relative – albeit tense – balance between the 1973 coup d'etat...

Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother’s Letter to Her Son by Homeira Qaderi, translated by Zaman Stanizai [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Translation

During the 985 nights since she was cleaved from her then 19-month-old, still-breastfeeding son, Homeira Qaderi managed to escape her native Afghanistan and eventually settle in California. Her son, now 4, has been told his mother is dead. With this haunting memoir, Dancing in the...

99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Central Asian, Fiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

During summer 2005, when “the American war was sort of dozing,” 12-year-old Marwand, his brother, and mother arrived in Logar, Afghanistan to visit extended family. The six years since Marwand’s last visit from the U.S. isn’t enough for Budabash – more wolf than dog –...

Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home by Sisonke Msimang [in Booklist]

17 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, South African

Before personal and political events finally allowed her to go “home” to South Africa, Sisonke Msimang spent her first 20-plus years in peripatetic exile. Born in Zambia, Msimang and her two younger sisters were “raised on a diet of communist propaganda and schooled in radical...

Series: Leaving My Homeland

31 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, African, Children/Picture Books, Iraqi, Nonfiction, Syrian

A Refugee's Journey from Afghanistan by Helen Mason A Refugee's Journey from the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Ellen Rodger A Refugee's Journey from Iraq by Ellen Rodger A Refugee's Journey from Syria by Helen Mason Working with members of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University in Toronto,...

The Refugee Experience for Middle Grade and YA Readers [in The Booklist Reader]

13 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, African, Arab, Biography, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Caribbean, Cuban, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Iranian, Iranian American, Iraqi, Italian, Lists, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Middle Grade Readers, Myanmarese (Burmese), Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, Young Adult Readers

This is the second in a two-part series of recommended books for youth about the refugee experience. For a list of picture books, click here. Canada, with her groovin' President, functional healthcare system, and more welcoming borders, is currently in the throes of "Month 13," the first month following...

A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi [in Library Journal]

17 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction, Repost

Accused of brutally murdering her husband, Zeba lands in jail. A mother of four, wife to Kamal, and obedient to Kamal's family, Zeba can't remember what happened. She remains silently resigned, realizing that in contemporary Afghanistan, just being a woman is enough to threaten not...

The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo and Juliet | The True Story of How They Defied Their Families and Escaped an Honor Killing by Rod Nordland [in Library Journal]

27 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Nonfiction, Repost

Journalist Rod Nordland’s debut title began as a series of popular 2014 New York Times articles that introduced Ali and Zakia as Afghanistan’s Romeo and Juliet. At the time of the book’s publication, the young lovers were alive and living together, though facing a dangerously...

When the Moon Is Low by Nadia Hashimi

11 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction

Told in two distinct narratives by a mother and her eldest son, When the Moon Is Low follows an Afghan family's desperate journey through Turkey, Greece, Italy, and beyond, in search of safety and peace. [If you choose to go aural, Sneha Mathan (again, as always) is an ideal...

The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari

14 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Fiction, Indian, South Asian

What I know about cricket is not so much about how the game is actually played, but that it's a cultural phenomenon that can actually save lives. Two favorite Indian films come immediately to mind: Lagaan, which was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002,...

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg

08 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, European, Nonfiction, Swedish

A girl is born: "She is perfect, down to her tiny, grasping fingers." But here's what her life will probably look like: "...

Redeployment by Phil Klay

10 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Fiction, Iraqi, Nonethnic-specific, Short Stories

This year, the venerable National Book Foundation has clearly favorited Phil Klay. First he was bestowed the youthful "5 Under 35" mantel, and then finished out with the coveted National Book Award for Fiction. Over the summer, he also made the shortlist for the 2014 Frank O’Connor...

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

09 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction

See the entwined pair of hands? Although the girl and woman never meet, they remain forever bound by both blood and experience over a tumultuous century in Afghanistan. The woman is Shekiba, the only daughter in a family of sons, whose gender alone makes her a target of abuse...

Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of an Education by Elizabeth Suneby, illustrated by Suana Verelst

30 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Afghan, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

The newest title in Canada’s Kids Can Press' vital CitizenKid series – "books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens" – is also quite possibly the best thus far. "'This is where my school once stood ...

In the Sea There Are Crocodiles: Based on the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari by Fabio Geda, translated by Howard Curtis

01 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, European, Italian, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Although the cover bears the designation, "A Novel," Enaiatollah Akbari – whose name also appears on said cover (who is not the book's author, Fabio Geda) – is a real person. A kid, really. In case you need a face to place with the name, the back...

The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

25 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Indian, South Asian

Before you begin The Watch, allow me to offer a few details about Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya's writerly preparations you won't find in the book. Although his ending "Acknowledgements" includes candid gratitude to numerous members of the U.S. military, the interview attached to the press materials sent with his title...

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

17 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Fiction

Before this novel, Khaled Hosseini's third, even hit shelves on May 21, the world had already made it a bestseller; many months – more likely years – will pass before it fades from the international spotlight. Although I had the galley for months before, I kept it...

The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem Aslam + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

01 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Author Interview/Profile, British, British Asian, Fiction, Pakistani, Repost

From the opening few pages of reading a Nadeem Aslam novel, I knew his writing was something to treasure and behold. Serendipitously, I used my then-day job to bring the Pakistan-born, British-educated-and-domiciled Aslam over the Pond to be a featured guest at the then-annual South...

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